Sailing Terrapin

Leaving Montserrat, we headed north around the tip of the island and then turned to the south with a course for Guadeloupe. We sailed around the east side of the island, so to avoid the falling ash on the west. After clearing Montserrat, the wind was 15 kts at about 090 degrees and we could roll out sail and turn off the engine. It was a great sail even though squalls were chasing us almost the entire way.

At about 10 miles north of Guadeloupe, we heard “Terrapin, Terrapin, Terrapin, Rodeo.” Our friends Gabe and Monika on SV Rodeo who we had met in the Bahamas in 2011 were hailing us. It was great talking to them. They were heading north to Sint Maarten and we would all try to catch up in person in a couple weeks.

About that time, there was a black ominous cloud over Guadeloupe so we furled the sails and held offshore waiting for it to pass. The rain never really quit but the wall of water passed. We went into Deshaises, the main anchorage and looked around. There were tons of boats and the only place to anchor was over 40 feet deep. With no swing room and swirly winds, that was not our first choice. We quickly pulled out the chart and found another anchorage at Pigeon Island about 8 miles south. Even Pigeon was sketchy but less sketchy, so we dropped the hook (in the pouring rain), had a rainy sundowner and went to sleep.

We quickly left at sunrise and headed for Iles Saintes. As we moved along the lee of the island, we only had about 3 kts of wind until we passed the southern tip. We had the Saintes in sight and again, rolled out the sails and turned off the engine.

The islands that comprise the Saintes have a euro-fishing village charm and we looked forward to spending a few days here and getting a taste of France in the Caribbean.